Tuesday Papers: Dexia in emergency talks amid debt crisis – money and other news

Financial Times

* Europe’s sovereign debt crisis has forced Dexia into emergency talks to consider options including a break-up; the Franco-Belgian banking group, which was put on a negative downgrade watch by Moody’s, holds €20.9 billion in sovereign debt issued by Greece, Italy and other troubled eurozone countries.

* George Osborne is to throw a multibillion-pound credit line to small and medium-sized companies after Sir Mervyn King, Bank of England governor, refused to use the printing presses to give direct support to business.

* Fears that the holding company for American Airlines, the fourth-biggest US carrier by passenger miles, would file for bankruptcy sent shares in AMR Corporation tumbling by a third on Monday.

* Investors are funnelling more assets to hedge funds that protect them against extreme events amid the European sovereign debt crisis and global economic recession, according to a survey by JPMorgan.

* The premium paid by home buyers chasing the rural idyll has jumped by more than a third over the past decade, according to Halifax Housing Review.

* A mixture of non-European governments, private equity investors and pension and insurance funds poured more than £8 billion into buying offices and shops in London in the 18 months to July, says property services group CB Richard Ellis.

* Starbucks is seeking donations from its American customers to help solve the US jobs crisis; money raised will be given to community lending institutions so that they, in turn, can provide microfinance and other loans to struggling small businesses.

* Shutl, an online delivery specialist, is extending its same day courier service to cover half of the UK population by Christmas to capitalise on the rise of internet shopping.

* Fears about a global economic slowdown have been overblown and governments and the media are “too pessimistic”, according to Tim Solso, chief executive of US-based Cummins, the world’s biggest independent maker of diesel engines.

* Denmark has become the first country in the world to tax foods that are high in saturated fats, such as pizza and butter.

* EADS will slow the production of Typhoon fighter jets at its German and Spanish factories without cutting any jobs, the aerospace company said on Monday.